Moderate Christians need to restore image

ANTHONY B. ROBINSON, P-I COLUMNIST

Published
10:00 pm PDT, Thursday, June 8, 2006

When Jenny, a high school music teacher, said to her minister, Eric Elnes, "I'm tired of being a Christian but," Elnes initially misunderstood. Thinking Jenny had said she was tired of being a Christian butt, he asked what she meant.

"I mean I'm tired of having always to qualify the word Christian when I tell people I'm going to church. I might as well say I'm radioactive. They get this surprised look on their faces and say, 'Not you Jenny. You don't seem the Christian type.' So I find myself throwing in more and more buts all the time: 'I'm a Christian, but.' "

Jenny went on, "Why should I have to explain to people, "I'm a Christian, but I don't think homosexuals are evil ... I'm a Christian, but I believe women are equal to men ... but I'm concerned about poverty ... but I care about the Earth ... but I don't think people who believe different from me will fry in hell for eternity?"

Jenny is one of many, maybe as many as 30 million Christians in this country who are trying to find the words to describe their faith and who are weary of "Christian" equaling conservative politics. Her pastor decided to do something about it. Joining with others in Arizona, Elnes wrote "The Phoenix Affirmations," a series of 12 statements summing up their own progressive and moderate Christianity.

Not only did Elnes write something down, he got to his feet. On Easter Sunday, he and hundreds of others set off on "Crosswalk America," walking 2,500 miles from Phoenix to Washington, D.C. They expect to arrive in the nation's capital and post their affirmations on the doorsteps of the nation on Labor Day weekend. Meanwhile, other groups are doing shorter Crosswalks. This Sunday people who share Jenny's concern will walk from Mercer Island to downtown Seattle, holding a service at 5 p.m. at the First Methodist Church (at which let me note, in the interest of full disclosure, I have been invited to speak).

What do "The Phoenix Affirmations" say? The first affirmation is revealing: "Walking fully in the Path of Jesus without denying the legitimacy of other paths that God may provide for humanity." There is a dual emphasis. The Christianity of the Phoenix Affirmations is unapologetic, "walking fully in the Path of Jesus." But there is acknowledgement and respect for other religions. This blend of commitment and openness is evident in other of the "affirmations," including No. 5, "Engaging people authentically, as Jesus did, treating all as creations made in God's image, regardless of race, gender, sexual orientation, age, physical or mental ability, nationality or economic class." (For a full text of the Affirmations, go to www.CrossWalkAmerica.org.)

But why do the Jenny's of the world find themselves being "Christians, but"? Why must they constantly say how they differ from what many today associate with Christianity? Partly it is because moderate or progressive, or as they are sometimes called, "mainline" Christians have brought their problems on themselves. They have not always been clear or articulate about their convictions, a condition the Phoenix Affirmations and similar efforts are seeking to remedy.

The reasons that a quarter of U.S. churchgoers have vanished from public view are not only internal. This is the age of television and the faith of Jenny and those like her has not shown up on the little screen that certifies what's real and what's not. A recent study by Media Matters revealed that in recent years prominent leaders of the Christian Right such as Jerry Falwell, Pat Robertson and James Dobson have been on the major Sunday morning news shows more than 40 times, while leaders of Lutherans and Methodists, Episcopalians and Presbyterians have not appeared even once. Television news and talk shows have also opted for conservative and even extreme right-wing Christians.

The gradual remaking of the public image of Christianity goes beyond television. For 25 years the Washington, D.C.-based Institute for Religion and Democracy, funded by such right-wing groups as the John Birch Society, has waged a sophisticated war on moderate Christian groups and their leaders. With relentless, high-profile attacks the IRD has discredited moderate Christians and shifted the perception of Christianity in America to the point that Pat Robertson, who recently described Islam as "satanic," and others like him are Christianity's public face -- an eventuality that would have dumbfounded my Christian grandmother. Elnes, Jenny and others are getting to their feet and finding their voices to try to change that.